Resistance
Resistance is by far the most important specification of speaker wire. Low-resistance speaker wire allows more of the amplifier's power to energize the loudspeaker's voice coil. The performance of a conductor such as speaker wire is therefore optimised by limiting its length and maximising its cross-sectional area. Depending on the hearing ability of the listener, this resistance begins to have an audible effect when the resistance exceeds 5% of the speaker's impedance.
A speaker wire’s impedance takes into account the wire’s resistance, the wire’s path, and the dielectric properties of local insulators. The latter two factors also determine the wire's frequency response. The lower the impedance of the speaker, the greater a significance the speaker wire's resistance will have.
Where large buildings have long runs of wire to interconnect speakers and amplifiers, a constant voltage speaker system may be used to reduce losses in the wiring.
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Famous quotes containing the word resistance:
“It was not seen that woman’s place was in the home until she began to go out of it; the statement was a reply to an unspoken challenge, it was attempted resistance to irresistible change.”
—Rose Wilder Lane (1886–1965)
“You may either win your peace or buy it: win it, by resistance to evil; buy it, by compromise with evil.”
—John Ruskin (1819–1900)
“How is freedom measured, in individuals as in nations? By the resistance which has to be overcome, by the effort it costs to stay aloft. One would have to seek the highest type of free man where the greatest resistance is constantly being overcome: five steps from tyranny, near the threshold of the danger of servitude.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)